Sermon – April 12, 2026

The Second Sunday of Easter: Year A

Sermon by Ginnie Glassman, Lay Preacher

“Everyone Has Doubts”

Have you ever been to Rocky Mountain National Park? I have visited it several times. Before I first visited, I had seen amazing photos of the mountains. I had read about their vastness and beauty. I had heard other people tell of their experiences being there. However, none of this prepared me to be at the top of the park and look out onto a landscape of mountains, one after another. The beauty of these stone creations against only the sky was incredible. The overwhelming size and expanse of the mountains astounded me. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw, no picture could capture it all and no description could do it justice. The only way to truly experience it was to be looking out from the tree line with the wind blowing in my hair, seeing only mountain after mountain, in awe of God’s work.

In today’s Gospel, the disciples are gathered in a locked room on the evening of the day that Jesus was resurrected (Easter Sunday to us). They are fearful that their lives may be taken next so they hide.

Jesus enters the room through the locked door. He greets them with “Peace be with you.”  He then shows them the wounds on his hands and in his side. The next sentence says that the disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord. But I expect there was a long pause before it fully dawned on them what had just happened. They must have been filled with shock, amazement and wonder. Jesus was risen from the dead! He had overcome death! He was standing before them in the flesh! This was beyond any experience or expectation they had. As my daughter commented, “How would you feel if Grandma walked in right now?” Shock, amazement, wonder! And I would want proof that it was really her.

Once they had recovered, Jesus commissioned them to go out to spread the Word as he had taught them. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you…Receive the Holy Spirit” In other words, go out and do God’s work in the world!

Thomas was away at this time and did not return until after Jesus had departed. As soon as he arrived, the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” They had seen Jesus in the flesh with the wounds that proved who he was. Thomas simply responds “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” This is the same Thomas who had said the week before as they headed to Jerusalem, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Thomas may not have been expressing doubt as much as he was saying “You cannot experience something that astounding and wonderful for me. I need to see him myself, to touch him and know he it is really him before I can truly believe.” (As I discovered in the Rocky Mountains.)

Jesus came back the following Sunday, again through the locked door.

He greets them again with “Peace be with you.” Then he goes directly to Thomas and invites him to touch the wounds in his hands and his side. No reprimands, no questions, just knowing what Thomas needs and offering it. Thomas responds to the invitation with “My Lord and my God” – a clear statement of faith and believing. He has seen and felt what he needed to experience this astounding miracle and is now convinced.

When Jesus says “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” He is blessing future generations of believers – THAT IS US!

There are many instances of doubt as we read Scripture. At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, I found a passage that I never noticed before:
The eleven disciples went to the hill in Galilee where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, even though some of them doubted.
This astounded me. There they were with Jesus in the flesh, having spoken to him, having touched him, eaten with him and still they doubted?? What further proof did they need?

What does it take to believe? What do we do with our doubts?

In today’s Epistle reading, Paul says “Although you have not seen him, you love him and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice…” We are gathered here because we believe in him and proclaim his resurrection. We have seen him through his works and his involvement in our lives daily.

How often has God proven himself to you or shown himself to you? Are we even always aware that it is God’s hand coming through for us? I remember working with a doctor who was emotionally abusive. I very much disliked the job but was afraid to leave for fear of being unemployed. One day, as I sat in his office, I closed my eyes for a weary moment. I saw a beautiful area of green grass with a large white rock. Jesus was sitting on the rock and I reached for the hem of his robe. Within two weeks, I was interviewed for and offered a much better job, and I was able to resign without fear. Jesus was showing me that he knew my pain and was watching out for me.

What do you have trouble believing?  For me, it is that God loves me unconditionally and is ready to forgive what I do. In my human experience, I have never known this kind of love. Like a handmade sweater, I know where all the catches and slipped stitches are within me. I try to bypass them but I can’t hide them from God. When I write in my prayer journal, I try to leave things out. Then I laugh at myself. I can’t hide anything from God. As Psalm 139 says, he “saw me from before I was born…when my bones were being formed…in my mother’s womb”. He knows me through and through.

How can God forgive me time after time when I can’t even forgive myself? A friend suggested I turn the question around and ask “How can I not forgive myself when he is constantly willing to forgive me?

Having been assigned the words of Jesus in the Passion reading on Palm Sunday, I felt awed and prayed to feel and understand the emotional and mental pain that Jesus had.  What stood out for me was why he was going through this. Because of God’s love for us.

How does God show his love for us? He places people in our lives, presents opportunities, arranges chance meetings, sends visions or speaks to us, helps our hand to write what do not want to say or see, sends warm spring sunshine after months of cold and snow.

One Sunday many years ago, a woman was about to read this passage from Isaiah. She paused and said “Close your eyes and listen to it as a love letter from God”. I suggest that you do the same now.

Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by your name, you are mine,

Should you pass through the sea, I will be with you;

or through rivers, they will not swallow you up.

Should you walk through fire, you will not be scorched

and the flames will not burn you.

For I am Yahweh, your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your savior.

I give Egypt for your ransom,

and exchange Cush and Seba for you.

Because you are precious in my eyes,

because you are honored and I love you,

I give men in exchange for you,

peoples in return for your life.

Do not be afraid, for I am with you. (Isaiah 43:1b-5a)

I was speaking with Mother Kathleen last week and commented about this Gospel reading being in the Lectionary every year on the Sunday after Easter. She said “Why do you think that is?” Well, it is important for us to know that God is with us in doubt and in belief, that he blesses our efforts to overcome doubt, that he will be with us if we are willing. The message is clear that we can doubt and Jesus will find a way to come to us and help us resolve our doubts.

As a friend of mine put it:

“Doubt is the ants in the pants of faith. It keeps things lively and moving”.

Dig deeper into your doubts and investigate. God will bless your efforts.

Amen.

The Collect and Readings:

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Acts 2:14a,22-32

Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will live in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ “Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’ This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.”

Psalm 16

1 Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in you; *I have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, my good above all other.”

2 All my delight is upon the godly that are in the land, *upon those who are noble among the people.

3 But those who run after other gods *shall have their troubles multiplied.

4 Their libations of blood I will not offer, *nor take the names of their gods upon my lips.

5 O Lord, you are my portion and my cup; *it is you who uphold my lot.

6 My boundaries enclose a pleasant land; *indeed, I have a goodly heritage.

7 I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; *my heart teaches me, night after night.

8 I have set the Lord always before me; *because he is at my right hand I shall not fall.

9 My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; *my body also shall rest in hope.

10 For you will not abandon me to the grave, *nor let your holy one see the Pit.

11 You will show me the path of life; *in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

1 Peter 1:3-9

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith– being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire– may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.